Dan Uggla drop-kicked his bat after striking out on three pitches. Chipper Jones slammed his bat into the dirt after popping up. Derek Lowe just trudged off the mound to another round of boos from the home crowd, wondering how it all went wrong.

The Braves are mad and frustrated heading into their 162nd game tied with the Cardinals for the NL wild-card lead.

Atlanta’s season is now on the brink after a potentially historic collapse.

“It’s like living out a bad dream,” Jones said.

Lowe had another miserable outing, surrendering five runs in four-plus innings, and the Braves took another step toward giving away a playoff berth that seemed certain just a few weeks ago with an ugly 7-1 loss to the visiting Phillies last night.

If Atlanta and St. Louis are tied after today’s games, the Cardinals will host a one-game playoff tomorrow night.

Chase Utley, Hunter Pence and Jimmy Rollins homered to back a three-hit outing by Philadelphia’s Roy Oswalt (9-10), who tuned up for the playoffs with a strong performance in a largely disappointing season.

“We’ve got one game to play in the month of September, then October comes around and it’s a new month,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “There’s not a person in that locker room who I wouldn’t want to be on my team to play that game.”

“I would hope so,” Jones said, trying to make light of the grim situation. “We’re pretty much all he has anyway.”

Certainly, that team is really, really struggling.

The Braves lost their fourth in a row and eighth in 11 games.

Atlanta, which had an 8½-game lead just three weeks ago, will send its ace, sixteen-game winner Tim Hudson, to the mound today.

“It is what it is,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve played 161 games and it comes down to one. We’ve done it to ourselves. No excuses there. We’ve got to go get it tomorrow.”

Lowe (9-17) has been a $15 million bust for the Braves, losing all five of his September starts and drawing the ire of Atlanta fans. They cheered lustily when Gonzalez popped out of the dugout to make a pitching change after Lowe gave up a leadoff single in the fifth, then heckled the high-priced right-hander as he trudged to the dugout — and straight to the showers without so much as a pause.

“When you’re 9-17 with a (5.05) ERA, come on, there’s really nothing you can say to sugarcoat it,” Lowe said. “I’m man enough to say I’ve had a terrible year. But we’ve still got a chance. Our best pitcher is going tomorrow. This isn’t about me. This is about this organization and how much hard work these guys have put in this season.”

Cardinals 13, Astros 6

After the Cardinals were swept by the Dodgers in late August, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa thought his team would fall short of the postseason once again.

Less than a month later, the Cardinals are tied with Atlanta for the NL wild-card lead.

Pinch-hitter Ryan Theriot delivered a tiebreaking two-run triple in the seventh inning, leading St. Louis to a victory over the Astros last night in Houston.

The sliding Braves lost 7-1 to Philadelphia, sending the race for the NL’s final playoff spot to the last day of the regular season. If the teams are tied after Wednesday’s game, St. Louis will play host to a one-game playoff tomorrow night.

“Yeah, when we got swept by the Dodgers,” La Russa said when asked if he doubted his team could make such a run. “When I saw our schedule I said: ‘We could finish under .500 if we don’t start getting it back together.’ And we did.”

St. Louis has won 21 of 29 games since that sweep, moving to the brink of what not so long ago seemed like an improbable goal.

“It’s kind of fed us here the last few days, 120 years of baseball and this is one of those historic runs to tie,” La Russa said. “But there’s a different story between tying and finishing it off. So tomorrow we’ll see if we can go take another step.”